"Hammer's Slammers Supplement 4: Now Available" Topic

I have just completed and uploaded Supplement 4 for free downoad on the Hammer's Slammers web site.

PDF link

As with all of these supplements, they look rather better viewed in acrobat than they do as a web page so sure to open it up in a proper PDF reader. Also note that – for those who want to print them off – they are quite high resolution: the file is not a small one… It's double the size of the previous three supplements (16 pages rather than 8) as it also containes both the updated FAQ section and the updated Expanded Rules Contents Index.

So – with the basic rule book and the four (free) supplements, you are pretty much good to go, rules wise.

But what's in it, I hear you say?

Well, there are three new troop classes supported: Warriors, Fanatics and Commissars. New Big Detachment Cards faturing them will be available as soon as I can get to them (the Sincanmo Militia will be converted to use some Warriors, for example.

New Anti-AAA Capabilities for weapons other than Powerguns and Lasers (though at reduced quality). These are already featured on Big Detachment Cards for some forces.

Redefined Firing Arcs for Combat Cars: just making them a ittle more flexible.

Greater effect from Close Quarter Infantry Weapons: a better reason for infantry to pick close up stuff like SMGs, light lasers and shotguns.

New rules for Infantry in cover and Mounted infantry (as in mounted on horses or similar).

New Weapon systems, detailed like ECAP, Fireflies and Panel ADS (all as used by the later TAS).

New Elite Skills including:
Master of Artillery
Communications Technician
Enhanced Data Link*
Anti-ATGW Enhanced Data Link*
Artillery Seeker Warheads*
*These are more technical innovations than actual skills but work in the same way

New Optional Rules including:
Troops (as opposed to Detachments): Smaller units to play with
Thunder Runs – getting your hurry on!
Multi-Story buildings
Artillery and Mortars and their Area Effect
Using ADS against missile attacks rather than just Buzzbombs
Prime Detachments and Prime Troops – how to portray whole units from Drakes work (with an example: detachmnt card to follow very soon)
Ramming Infantry and Vehicles to attack them

Plus, as i mentioned, the updated contents to cover the main rules plus all 4 supplements and the FAQ.

So – quite a lot then.

Enjoy!

John Treadaway
hammers-slammers.com

PS – Here's a teaser: coming very soon the Marvelan Confederacy

stop teasing me i want the minis :P

And very nice they are too, RatGod: and they have more on the way as well :)

Oh deep joy!

John T

Thanks very much John.

I finally purchased the Crucible last month, so very good to see some more optional rules.

Thanks Collins355

If you download all 4 supplements you should pretty much have everthing you need. Downloading the Big Detachment cards for the forces of your choice is always a good idea too!

John T

Very Cool !

Once I've read through them all, John, I think I'm going to have some questions for you.

Fire away matey – that's how the FAQ section got built in the first place! :)

Jhn T

Am I right in thinking there is no opportunity/reaction fire available to the non-active player?

And am I correct in thinking there is no chance element to spotting? If it is in LOS then you see it automatically at any range? Even if it is inside a building or foliage or foxholes?

Collins355

You're pretty much right:

opportunity/reaction fire available to the non-active player?

Not on an individual TU basis. You take different detachments (or troops) in the initiative order they bowl up in Phase 1 (which is a dice roll plus Leadership) and the detachmens (or troops) each then run through phases 2-6 (remembering that detachments/troops may elect to forgo/delay their move if they are in a nice defensive position, for example) in a 'UgoIgo' ind of way.

After everyones's done that, there are the results of fire in phase 7 from ATGWs, mortars and artilery etc and any interceptions of same which is done simultaneously (in a 7a,7b,7c,7d order).

There are a couple of instances that may interupt this pattern. Mines going off under vehicles as they move. Vehicles setting off the ADS systems against infantry as they drive past. Infantry moving too close to vehicles who have ADS systems (thereby setting them off), and the Elite skill "SnapShot" which allows for firing on the move. But no – that's pretty much it. I have to say, it seems to work quite well (it's quite an attritional game).

And am I correct in thinking there is no chance element to spotting? If it is in LOS then you see it automatically at any range? Even if it is inside a building or foliage or foxholes?

Largely (the AI is awseome) but that does depend on the nature of what it is your're spotting.

Spotting snipers, for example, which are normally not placed on the table for people to see but marked on a map, is a matter of a roll from the people doing the spotting (Elites and Veterans are better at this than every one else). But they only get a chance to do this if the Sniper has done something active (fire or laser desigante). If the sniper is passive and is just acting as a forward observer, he could be literally anywhere – even in plain sight – and can't be seen (he's in a shallow depression witha cam net over him etc).

If it's a regular unit, it depends how you want to play the rules. If I put infantry in a building, or further into dense foliage (or any foliage for infantry) than they can be seen through (effectively that distance equalts Close range – though it has to be double that for tank sized vehicles) I don't place them on the table but write them on a map. Then – if they open fire, they are simply detected – not necessarily spotted as such, but their location is detected (as in: "your AI says you're recieving fire from the second story of that building"). But – to keep things simple – I then generally put them on the table.

If they are visible when I've placed them (I mean actually laser pointer or 'get your eye down and take a look' visible) then they'll get cover and obscuration if the target returns fire. If they are invisible (that's a player judgement call – they may be infantry [or even a vehicle, I guess] firing through loop holes in the wall or firing slits) then you have to try and take out the building or floor, depending on circumstances, rather than the TU itself because you simple can't see it. Dangerous for the defender, of course, if he has lots of infantry TUs and puts them all in one building – or one floor of a building – and you blow the building up, they could all wind up very dead…

Infantry in foliage or a foxhole (hulldown for vehicles) do get (I've now clarified) both Obscuration (drop 1 QR to hit them) and extra defensive value for infantry. If my scenario said that the infantry down a foxhole were so deep that they were pretty much undetectable, in a sniper kind of way, I guess I'd treat the individual TUs as – effectively – snipers and make a roll for them to be detected. But they'd have to be pretty good at it in my scenario, to be honest. I'll confess, I've not had to deal with that one before. :)

Does that help?

John T

Thanks John.

Your way of playing infantry in cover isn't anywhere in the rules though as far as I can see. This would be a house rule?

I guess I was asking these questions because I was trying hard but failing to see how you could conduct an ambush or similar defensive action using these rules. It just seems impossible given that as a defender my units are instantly spotted in LOS and then I can't fire them until it is my turn to have initiative. So the attacker could happily roll through my intended killzone and then blast me to bits while my guys sit there like stunned mullets.

Perhaps you could explain how an ambush would be conducted under the rules?
Also, how do you avoid the infamous "Panzerbush" syndrome of an attacker bouncing forward from LOS-blocking piece of cover to the next with the non-active player having no opportunity to interrupt?

Equally, (and I'll freely admit this is a concern with other rules like DSII as well) the "spot anything in LOS at any range in any cover" mechanic breaks down when you have artillery. My sniper/arty-observer can happily pop up to the top of a hill/skyscraper on my side of the board and then proceed to spot anything in LOS right back to my opponent's baseline regardless of it being in a wood or building. He can call the artillery down on it merrily, even if the enemy hasn't fired or done anything to make itself visible. Even better if it is an enemy commander. For me anyway, this is nuts and makes defending very hard.

I'm well aware of the "advanced AI/sensors" handwave from DSII days, but surely concealment technology has also moved on? Isn't that the way we've seen things from time immemorial? For every measure there is a countermeasure.

Page 116 of the rules says:

Hidden Units
All TUs may be placed off table for ambush type scenarios. Such TUs are deemed to be hidden from sight but their position must be clearly marked on a map prior to the start of the scenario. Large vehicles such as tanks are the easiest to spot, requiring line of sight (which obviously excludes vehicles hiding in buildings). Large vehicles 30cm* or more inside dense woodland and more than 30cm away from an opponent are considered hidden.
These figures drop to 15cm* in dense woodland for medium sized vehicles (APCs, trucks etc) and 15cm* in any woodland or bushes for small vehicles (jeeps, skimmers etc) and infantry. Use the chart on page 106 for converting these distances to scales other than 25mm/28mm.
TUs (that aren't snipers – see page 120) automatically reveal themselves if they either fire or move and are placed on the table.

* As it says, these are the measurements for 28mm models – adjust accordingly.

So I'm not sure… For me, ambushes are easy: the ambusher draws a map with his placement of stuff on it. The 'victim' works their way along some choice of routes to try and avoid said ambush and (pretty much inevitably) hits a part of it. The ambushers only get revealed when people get really quite close (woodland) or not at all (in buidings and stuff) unless the open fire. Snipers, as I said, have to be discovered when they stopbeing passive.

Sure, a forward observer passively bringing down fire can be a dreadful pain but that fire doesn't automatically hit and there are defensive measures against it. And – in the supplements – counter battery fire.

I always limit artillery strikes by the simple expedient that the force calling them has to request it with Leadership Points. Adjust the number of LPs required to call a strike depending on the nature of the scenario (ie – how much artillery you want them to hve) and the 'heavyness' of the strike (see Artillery: page 123; Steel Rain: page 6 Supplement 1; Returning fire: page 7 Supplement 1).

John T

I've just taken the opportunity to update two things on the site and add a third.

First off, ost Supplement 4, the Optional Rules Cheat Sheet PDF link and the Elite Skills Cheat Sheet PDF link have been updated to include the new material from this supplement. While I could keep the latter to a single page, the former, sadly, now stretches over 2 pages.

I also came across an interesting piece sent to me by one of the TMP contributors dealing with his ideas on the use of Cybertanks (Ogres and such like) using Crucible rules.

Obviously it's not Slammers universe stuff, per se, but makes for an interesting – and thought provoking – read.

So I put that on the site too: PDF link

John T

John, thanks for your ambush suggestions and updating the cheat sheets (which I'll now print out again!)

I must say that I was totally confused by the rule on page 116 – or to be more specific, by its interaction with the rules at the bottom of page 110 regarding LOS. Those latter rules say "TUs can see 5cm into, through, or out of vegetation or similar broken terrain (other scales, see page 106: range Point Blank)". My reading of that would indicate that if I place my TUs the distance into cover required by the rule on 116 to be hidden they will be unable to see out.

The absence of opportunity/reaction fire rules is the real killer for me though. How on earth do you stop people skipping from piece of LOS-blocking cover to piece of LOS-blocking piece of cover? I'll get my camera out an film a rough example to illustrate the issue for you.

The absence of opportunity/reaction fire rules is the real killer for me though. How on earth do you stop people skipping from piece of LOS-blocking cover to piece of LOS-blocking piece of cover? I'll get my camera out an film a rough example to illustrate the issue for you.

Because with one exception only (the Elite Skill Snapshot I mentioned earlier in the thread) moving from one piece of non LoS cover cover to another gains the TU little except the movement itself: unless they have Snapshot, its not as if they can fire at anyone while they are moving and so – if they are completely hidden at both the start and end of a move and therefore can't fire, I'm not sure they gain much.

But if they move from cover to somewhere with a firing position then they will almost certainly be vulnerable to return fire after they've fired. I guess The Crucible might not be a system that suits everyone but (and I'm not making excuses here) I don't think it has ever come up as an issue at any time in the last ten years.

My suggestions at this point would be one of a couple of things. My first – the obvious one, I guess – is try it and see how it works for you.

The second apprach is to bear in mind that, as they were never designed to be a fixed set of competition style rules, adapt them them with a house rule (as other do for other areas). For example an optional rule that allows a TU that hasn't activated yet but has been allocated (let's call it) 'reactive fire' as an option for, say, 2LPs in the previous turn (allowing it to fire at any target that moves into or through its fire arc) is easy to try as a fiddle/house rule with the system.

I'd be quite interested to try that myself, as it happens but, as I said earlier, it has genuinely never surfaced previously since publication of the original set in 2003 (or so).

John T

Is Old crow Miniatures available for Hammer's Slammers?

Depends on a couple of things – scale and availability.

The 15mm scale Hammer's Slammers range is available from ainsty castings. Check out the contacts page on the Slammers site for links.

John T

Back on a proper computer (as opposed to a less capable device) which makes links and stuff a lot easier:

Ainsty 15mm Slammers are here link

But all other contact stuff is here: link

John T

Thank you